Doha Holiday Villa Hotel to offer Malaysian food during Ramadan

posted at: 8/21/2009 7:7:55
Source ::: THE PENINSULA / By Joyce C Abaño

Joey Chen and Nurina Anuar of The Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences smile while explaining the hotel’s Ramadan plans. SALIM MATRAMKOT

DOHA: The Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences, which recently had its soft opening, will join the rest of the country in observing Ramadan traditions – but in Malaysian style.

Joey Chen, general manager of the Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences, said the hotel will put up a majlis, and offer value-based promotions for Iftar and Suhoor for their guests, but they will prepare it the way Malaysians observe Ramadan.

“We want to show our guests how Malaysians observe Ramadan, so we will include some of the food and drinks prepared there during this period. We prepare special dishes during Ramadan in Malaysia, and we want to introduce it here… We want to highlight Malaysian dishes during Ramadan,” said Nurina Anuar, Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences’ public relations manager, who hails from Malaysia.

The Holiday Villa, which started receiving guests last month, will officially open six months from today.

“We need to wait for the opening of the retail shops at the residential buildings, otherwise, it will seem empty… We decided to have our soft opening to see how the customers are receiving our services… this is like a trial run,” said Chen in an interview.

The Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences’ luxury shops will be located at the ground level of all the eight residential buildings, which surround the hotel building.

The hotel, which has two restaurants Lagenda and Chopstix, will open four more hotels during its official opening, as well as a fitness center, a health spa and a beauty salon.

“We will be offering short-term memberships for our fitness center once it opens in six months’ time,” said Chen.

Chen said the Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences will add seven meeting rooms of 120 sq. m. each as he has noticed businessmen have been visiting Qatar more and more these days.

The Holiday Villa is one of the leading Malaysian hotel chains with several properties in Asia: Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Cambodia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Sudan and France. The hotel here is managed by the Holiday Villa International Hotels and Residences and owned by the Taleb Group of Companies.

The Doha Holiday Villa Hotel and Residences include 358 guest rooms, 116 executive suites, three Business Suites, four Deluxe Suites and one Royal Suite together with 54 Prima Floor rooms. Guests at the Executive Prima Floor can enjoy access to the Prima Lounge located at the 11th floor of the hotel. The residences include 376 units of serviced apartments with two or three bedrooms.

All units are fully furnished and feature spacious separate living and dining rooms, modern kitchen facilities, high-speed Internet access, IPTV, 32-inch flat screen, satellite television programmes, pay television channels, in-room safe and washing machine and dryer.

Facilities of the hotel include a swimming pool, kids’ pool, business center, meeting facilities, 24-hour in-room dining, laundry and dry cleaning, concierge services, cross signing facilities, secretarial services and valet parking.

Chen said the hotel has a lot of activities planned after the Eid holidays.THE PENINSULA